Music Style Reggae

Musical Influences Burning Spear, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Alpha Blondy, Lee Scratch Perry

Artist History Having gone through a number of previous incarnations, these recordings document the definitive Ujamaa in their element - live in front of dancing, cheering crowds. Ujamaa was born in the summer of 1989 when two Fredericton reggae bands, both fronted by Kwame Dawes, joined forces. Small Axe contained future "Ujies" Luis Cardoso, Lisa Wilby, and Dave Bartlett - other members were bass player Carman Lebel and original drummer Adam Bentley. Sons of Gilbert had former Ujies Mike Doherty, Chris Hunt and original Ujamaa lead guitarist Peter Hicks. Both bands were already performing original music, but once the fusion was complete the list of originals quickly grew. Before long the band was performing strictly original sets to sold out shows in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton and Halifax, prompting Canadian Composer magazine to dub them "Fredericton's most successful export" in 1990. In January 1991 Ujamaa went into the studio with producer Mark Carmody (Exploding Meet, Decade of Dreams) to record the tracks that were to become their only album a full year later. Chokota was released in January 1992. A MuchMusic Video-Fact grant led to the release of a video for the song Leave us the Sky shortly thereafter. Around this time, lead guitar player Peter Hicks left the band and was replaced by Geordie Haley, a popular Fredericton guitar player with an extensive background in jazz, blues and experimental rock. Haley played in a number of Fredericton bands, including its most successful jazz group the Cosmic Quartet and the prolific experimental rock noise outfit Exploding Meet. His raunchier lead guitar licks propelled Ujamaa into a much heavier reggae sound than was evident on Chokota. By the time these recordings were made during a three-night stand in April 1992 at the Flamingo Cafe and Lounge in Halifax, Ujamaa had never been louder, tighter or more exciting - the Halifax press called their show a "wild ride that must be experienced." Unfortunately, by the fall of 1992 Ujamaa had disbanded. Later that same year, Chokota made number 23 on Toronto radio station CKLN's top 100 albums of 1992. The band never played a show in Toronto. The band regrouped in September 2000 for 3 shows at the Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival in Fredericton, NB - where they headlined the Festival kick-off to a sold-out main stage.

Group Members Kwame Dawes - lead vocals; Luis Cardoso - rhythm guitar; Geordie Haley - lead guitar; Mike Doherty - keyboards, sax, percussion, backing vocals; Lisa Wilby - keyboards, backing vocals; Chris Hunt - bass; Dave Bartlett - drums, percussion

Albums Chokota, 1992, We & Dem Records; Live at the Flamingo, 2000, We & Dem Records

Press Reviews "Fredericton's most successful export." Canadian Composer Magazine, 1990. "A wild ride that must be experienced." The Gazette (Dalhousie University), 1992. "For an introduction by a crossover reggae band you probably won't see anything quite as effective as the way these kids open their set. First off a beautifully executed a capella snippet washes over the increasingly inebriated pleibs like a warm breeze over the Serengeti. In reality it's a bit of a tease. You can see everyone on stage wound up like coils on benzedrine during the harmonizing, and you know that any minute now everything is going to go KA-POW! And it does." The brunswickan (University of New Brunswick), 1991.

Location Fredericton, New Brunswick - Canada

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